Alexander Column

This red granite column at the centre of Palace Square commemorates Russia's victory over Napoleon and honours Emperor Alexander I. Designed by Auguste de Montferrand and raised in the mid-1830s, its single polished shaft is one of the tallest of its kind, crowned by an angel bearing a cross who tramples a serpent. Remarkably, the enormous monolith stands unfixed, held upright by its own mass and precise engineering, while bronze reliefs at the base allegorise military glory.